# EUR-Lex - 12004V197 - EN

Important legal notice

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# 12004V197

**Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe - PART III — THE POLICIES AND FUNCTIONING OF THE UNION - TITLE III — INTERNAL POLICIES AND ACTION - CHAPTER II — ECONOMIC AND MONETARY POLICY - Section 5 — Transitional provisions - Article III-197 **

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Official Journal 310 , 16/12/2004 P. 0086 - 0087 *

Article III-197

1. Member States in respect of which the Council has not decided that they fulfil the necessary conditions for the adoption of the euro shall hereinafter be referred to as "Member States with a derogation".

2. The following provisions of the Constitution shall not apply to Member States with a derogation:

(a) adoption of the parts of the broad economic policy guidelines which concern the euro area generally (Article III-179(2));

(b) coercive means of remedying excessive deficits (Article III-184(9) and (10));

(c) the objectives and tasks of the European System of Central Banks (Article III-185(1), (2), (3) and (5));

(d) issue of the euro (Article III-186);

(e) acts of the European Central Bank (Article III-190);

(f) measures governing the use of the euro (Article III-191);

(g) monetary agreements and other measures relating to exchange-rate policy (Article III-326);

(h) appointment of members of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank (Article III-382(2));

(i) European decisions establishing common positions on issues of particular relevance for economic and monetary union within the competent international financial institutions and conferences (Article III-196(1));

(j) measures to ensure unified representation within the international financial institutions and conferences (Article III-196(2)).

In the Articles referred to in points (a) to (j), "Member States" shall therefore mean Member States whose currency is the euro.

3. Under Chapter IX of the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and of the European Central Bank, Member States with a derogation and their national central banks are excluded from rights and obligations within the European System of Central Banks.

4. The voting rights of members of the Council representing Member States with a derogation shall be suspended for the adoption by the Council of the measures referred to in the Articles listed in paragraph 2, and in the following instances:

(a) recommendations made to those Member States whose currency is the euro in the framework of multilateral surveillance, including on stability programmes and warnings (Article III-179(4));

(b) measures relating to excessive deficits concerning those Member States whose currency is the euro (Article III-184(6), (7), (8) and (11)).

A qualified majority shall be defined as at least 55 % of the other members of the Council, representing Member States comprising at least 65 % of the population of the participating Member States.

A blocking minority must include at least the minimum number of these other Council members representing more than 35 % of the population of the participating Member States, plus one member, failing which the qualified majority shall be deemed attained.

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